TRUMP SHOOTS HIMSELF IN THE FOOT - AGAIN

Checking over the news tonight, Trump’s declaration yesterday that the Constitution should be overturned so the “rightful winner” of he 2020 election can be installed in office is seen as an escalation on his part to try and deflect from the fact the walls are closing in on him as though he was in the Death Star’s trash compactor.

At least one other writer has observed that Trump’s assault on the Constitution in his scream of fear Saturday was the former president “shooting the constitution on Fifth Avenue.”

I think it is more a case of El Jefe Del Merde A Loco (“Chief of the Crazy Shit”) shooting himself in the foot. Again.

Once again, the defendant has confessed himself guilty of his crimes.

There are four key crimes for which Trump could be charged, for his role in attempting to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power and overturning the result of the 2020 election and for his speech fomenting the violent January 6th assault on the Capitol to stop that transfer of power.

Seditious conspiracy is now definitely on the table with the success of the Justice Department’s case against Stuart Rhodes. The events of Janury 6 are now legally defined as a “seditious act” and conspiracy can proved by showing an agreement between two people “to overthrow . . . by force the Government of the United States.” We have the testimony of Rhodes’ phone calls to the White House, and perhaps the testimony of Rhodes himself as he contemplates a sentence of 20 years in prison.

As regards the case being built by Special Counsel Jack Smith, when the target makes a written statement openly calling for termination of the constitution that establishes the federal government, that is a big step forward in the effort to prove his readiness to overthrow that government.

A primary element of the charges would be that Trump’s sedition had as a goal stopping the peaceful transition of presidential power; having Trump say, “We need the Constitution terminated” so that the legitimate transfer of power that happened can be overturned and he can be installed as “the rightful winner” brings Smith so close to proving the charge he can smell Trump’s “panther sweat” of fear.

The crime of insurrection, which is punishable by a fine, a maximum of ten years in prison, and permanent disqualification from holding “any office under the United States,” is not clearly defined in law as to the elements that constitute insurrection. Generally, prosecutors would need to prove that Trump intended to commit an “act or instance of revolting against civil authority or an established government.” What better evidence of that is there than him proclaiming that the Constitution, the document on which the established government’s authority rests, should be overthrown?

To charge Trump with obstructing an official proceeding, that is, stopping the joint session of Congress on January 6th to certify the election of President Biden, Smith needs to show Trump did not want that certification to happen. A post in which he states that certification should never have happened and should overturned two years later, seems a clear demonstration of his intent.

The charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States can be proven by his statement that the election of 2020 was “rigged,” and “stolen” and that the certification of Biden’s victory be nullified.

Once again, Trump’s criminal lawyers will be reaching for that bottle of Old Overcoat in the file drawer and pouring themselves a double, straight - hell, they’ll just swig from the bottle! - after their client once again opened his mouth and confessed his crimes in Saturday’s “Truth” Social post.

The post shows just how consumed by the terror of conviction and imprisonment he is.

Not only is he consumed by the terror of conviction, but perhaps more importantly he is consumed by the fear that he has become irrelevant. Over the past 50 years, the one thing Trump has been dedicated to is being famous enough to make people’s attention revolve around him. For him to remain famous, and yet be considered irrelevant, to be where the fame ceases to matter, is a fate worse than death.

But remember: Saturday night’s post may be the desperate act of a terrified coward, a scream into the night against the terrors that come in the night, the act of someone who is truly weak and pathetic. That doesn’t mean he’s not still the most dangerous threat to the Republic we have faced in all the years this constitutional democratic republic has existed.

As has been shown repeatedly since he rode his escalator down to the lobby of Trump Tower when he declared war on us seven years ago, we ignore him at our peril.

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